Fowler School of Magic's

Star Found

She woke up to a bang. She threw her leg up, ready to fight back when she saw Francine staring at the door. She turned to look at her as three more similar bangs came.

"It's Nathan and Max! Let us in!" A sigh of relief escaped both of them as Francine wrapped her blanket around her to cover her pajamas before she answered the door. Calla merely grabbed a jacket and zipped it up as the door opened.

A man stood next to them, Max was talking angrily with him. It was the man she'd seen when she first got here, the man with the antlers.

"Is something the matter here boys?" He asked cooly, Max shot him a pointed look. "Not a boy. Also, there's no problem, just wanted to talk to our friends." He nodded thoughtfully, keeping his eyes trained on Nathan, clearly fuming. "Well, maybe you weren't aware but this is the girl's floor. Boys aren't to be here."
"Not a boy." Max repeated, the man sighed, "You gents are going to have to leave. You can talk to these ladies later."
"Yeah, it's real quick though."
"One more step and you're in big trouble."

He smiled and stepped back, it was the type of smile you'd see on daytime TV. The fake kind. "I'm so sorry sir. We'll be out of your hair now. We have to meet someone else anyway." He nodded and smiled, following them down the hallway.

Francine shut the door, turning to look at Calla again with a silent question. What was that about?

She made a mental note to ask them later and also to punch the antler man in his stupid face. The floors weren't separated by gender, there were boys on this floor too. She was left with more questions than she realized.

She went to classes as usual and after they were done, instead of going onto their floor, she pulled Francine up another flight to Nathan's room. She knocked once and pushed open the door with difficulty.

What they found was neither Nathan nor Max, but a woman huddled against the wall, eyes glazed over. By the way Francine recoiled she knew she wasn't dead, she saw her too. She looked so alive and gone at the same time. Her hair was a vibrant shade of purple, tied up in two buns, her outfit too many colors to count with colorful bracelets and necklaces.

She shut the door behind them and looked at the woman, staring off into space. Francine hid behind her as she snapped to get her attention. She didn't acknowledge it in the slightest. She was frozen in time.

The door knob moved behind them, quiet talking outside. Francine dragged her into the large closet, haphazardly pulling the doors shut behind them.

"Hugo Hugo Hugo Hugo HugoHugoHugoHu-"
"WHAT?"

He appeared in the closet, his anger disappeared as he saw the girls huddled on the floor. Francine was practically shaking as her hand cut off the circulation to Calla's arm where she squeezed it. "Check who's coming in. Help us. Ple-" the door opened. All was silent as Hugo disappeared, heavy boots moved through the room as Hugo reappeared. "It's just Nathan and Max."

The relief that washed over her felt like a breath of fresh air. Breath she hadn't even realized she'd been holding. Francine also heard him based on her loosened grip. She fell against her shoulder as the adrenaline began to lessen.

"Who's in here?" Max hissed, "I have a bat!" She believed them, the shadow of a bat showed through the slits in the door. "It's just us. Calla and Francine." The closet door was pushed open slowly and Max dropped the bat, making a gesture toward the door. Nathan appeared not a minute later.

"Jesus fuck you nearly gave us a heart attack." Calls pointed to the woman sitting across from them, still unmoved. They turned to look at it, then back at them.

"It's a long story."
"Shoot."

They pulled them out of the closet, Francine still didn't let go, just held on a little more loosely as they explained.

"So Nathan wanted to find this graduate who could see ghosts for you as a surprise. To help you. So I asked a buddy of mine in Mutatio to whip me up a person finder, she can pull things out of her dreams. Well, she got it to me yesterday and we went looking for this woman and we came across an old building way, way into the forest."

They shuddered and looked to Nathan.

"Well, we followed the thing inside. It just seemed like an abandoned building, nothing out of the ordinary."

"Until."

"Until we found a cellar door. We pulled it open and, and we found a big room-"

"The biggest I've ever seen."

"-full of people just like her. All hooked up to this thing, these tubes, wires, pumping this purple liquid from them."

"So we followed the detector to her."

Nathan looked up finally, pointing at the woman on the floor, "That's the Star you've been looking for. She graduated last summer."

"I saw people I knew from last year, people who reached the Grand level and passed the graduation exam. We came to tell you,"

"You can go to class, ace them even, just don't pass the tests. Don't pass any of them. Fail your class if you want. You're both Intermediate already. If you graduate, we're pretty sure you'll end up like..."

The room fell silent.

"We have to tell people."
"You already saw what happened. He followed us all the way up, made sure we went back to the room. We're probably targets now, let's hope you two aren't."
"I can't die. I'm too young. I can't-"

Calla squeezed her hand, cutting her off. Max spoke up.

"She still has a pulse. She just-"
"Not helping."
"Anyway, we're trying to figure out how to bring her back to well, being a person."

Hugo stood at the edge of the room, in front of the door. He didn't take his eyes off Star, rag doll limp against the wall. He must have felt her staring because he looked over. "Fix her?" She asked quietly as the others talked amongst themselves. He shook his head, gesturing at her without a word before he dropped his hands and sighed. "If I could, I would." She looked at him a while longer, "Possess?" She said even quieter than before, his eyes went wide as he stumbled backward, like the suggestion knocked him off his feet.

"Not here. Not now. Not today. We'll talk about this later." She nodded in silent acceptance, forcing Hugo to do something he didn't want to do was the last thing she wanted to do. So, she turned back to the group.

"I'll talk to Rhiannon and Dorothy. They've been here a long time, they might know more about it."
"Who?"

She looked to Francine to explain, the only one she talked about them with, she offered nothing. So, she quickly went over who they were and then looked at Max. "Can you make some crescent rolls?" They sighed and glanced as Star before they rolled their wrist and produced a basket covered with a napkin.

Francine bounded up, "Me too! Pancakes!" They groaned but produced a pancake, moving to set it aside, likely for himself. Francine lunged for it, starting a brawl for them. Max fell backward, holding her off as they moved the pancakes into Nathan's lap. Francine intercepted them and licked a stripe up the side. Max gagged, pushing her playfully backward. "Brat, get out of here." She laughed and left the two in the dorm, following Calla out.